Film review: less extreme than the book, but Gone Girl is still engrossing
With more than six million copies sold, Gillian Flynn's 2012 thriller, Gone Girl, is a bona fide publishing phenomenon. Laden with narrative double-takes, adapting the story to film is a tricky prospect — with the task having fallen to David Fincher, a director with ample experience of adapting must-read novels (from Fight Club to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) for the screen.
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris
Director: David Fincher
Category: III
With more than six million copies sold, Gillian Flynn's 2012 thriller, Gone Girl, is a bona fide publishing phenomenon. Laden with narrative double-takes, adapting the story to film is a tricky prospect — with the task having fallen to David Fincher, a director with ample experience of adapting must-read novels (from Fight Club to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) for the screen.
Wisely — and rather rarely — he has the book's author on hand to write the screenplay; and both Fincher and Flynn perform an admirable service for those who have not read the book.
Gone Girl is a Missouri-set missing person saga. On the day of her fifth wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) disappears, leaving behind signs of a struggle and traces of blood. The carnage is discovered by her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck). But has he murdered her? Soon, the local community have him pegged as public enemy number one — with only his sister, Margo (Carrie Coon) vouching for his innocence.
As for Amy, there are some diary entries — flashbacks to their lives together, from their meeting in New York to their first kiss.
"We have each other — everything else is background noise," she had said, but when both get laid off, and Nick's mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, the only option seems to be relocation to Nick's hometown, much to Amy's secret displeasure.
